Patna City superintendent of police Manu Maharaj (right) shows the haul in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Jan. 18: Patna police today arrested an inter-state gang of 15 men who foxed tourists coming from foreign countries to Bihar by selling them fake 19th century metals, old fake currency notes and silver coins.

In a joint raid by the Gandhi Maidan police and the Special Branch led by Patna City superintendent of police Manu Maharaj, the cops found an equipment similar to a cylinder that had a metal affixed to its top.

Police said, the equipment dates back to the 19th century and was capable of pulling rice grains just like a magnet attracts iron.

As foreign tourists show keen interest in buying such antiques, the criminals were planning to sell the metal to anyone they could befool for a whopping Rs 2 crore, the police said. The police also recovered some fake and genuine currency. Patna senior superintendent of police B.S. Meena said tourists coming to places like Rajgir, Pawapuri, Bodhgaya, Deoghar, Ranchi and Patna were prime targets of the gang.

“They were trying to sell the piece of metal which they claimed dated back to the 19th century. According to them, the old metal could attract rice grains. They had devised a gadget with the help of batteries and wires. With the metal piece on its top, the system was designed in such a way that the metal attracted rice grains. They were planning to sell the metal for Rs 2 crore,” the officer said.

Police added the criminals had a rate chart fixed for the sale of coins. A Re 1 coin dating back to 1885 was priced Rs 1,000.

The highest price was for an 1839 coin, Rs 2,00,000. An 1841-made coin was priced at Rs 1,75,000, while coins of 1936 and 1939 were priced at Rs 1,00,000.

The police said that one Rahul, the kingpin of the gang, used to operate with five to six associates to dupe tourists.

“Rahul is fluent in English and he used to attract tourists. They had a single piece of such metal. Once Rahul had convinced the customer for a demonstration of the metal, other members of the gang used to come with the equipment to show it to the prospective buyer, ” the senior superintendent of Patna police said.

He said the gang members were being interrogated.

In another catch, the city police have arrested three illegal arms dealer from the Alamganj area of Patna City.

One country-made rifle, which looks like a imitation of an AK-47 assault rifle, 10 country-made pistols and syringes that were used to inject drugs were recovered from their possession.

They have been identified as Rakesh Paswan, Jeetendra Paswan and Sunny Kumar.